Words, phrases or anything else wanted? Ask here!

[Dreams]

There are two basic ways to say "I want" or "I'd like".

One pattern is used with nouns:
[NOUN] ga hoshii desu = I want/I'd like [NOUN].
Biiru ga hoshii desu = I want beer.
Pretty simple, and like other phrases that use 'desu', you can change it to 'da' to make it less formal, or leave it off to be completely informal.

Another pattern is used with verbs:
[VERB in 'masu base' form]+TAI = I want/I'd like to [VERB].

If you don't know how to create verb forms, it might be confusing. D:
To conjugate verbs into the TAI form, this is an overview:

verb: plain form -> masu form -> masu base form -> tai form
-RU verb: TABERU -> TABEMASU -> TABE -> TABETAI (I want to eat)
-U verb: IKU -> IKIMASU -> IKI -> IKITAI (I want to go)

With the -RU verbs, it's pretty direct (chop off the RU). But with -U verbs, there's irregularities in the spelling, so it's better to try to go through all the forms to get to the TAI form.

"I need" can sometimes use the above patterns, depending on context. But you're more likely to use patterns with hitsuyou or iru/irimasu.

There are also polite forms that request actions, like patterns using kudasai or o-negai or nasai. Depending on what you request, those can mean, "I'd like", etc. Kind of like, "Could you/I please...?" etc.

Let me know if you'd like me to go over the latter examples...

[Sakujou]

arigatou, was helpful a lot The tai forum thing was a bit confusing o-o;; but I shall learn those later xD

[soulreaper_shinigami]

how do you "exterminator" in japanese..???

[Dreams]

Well, the official title is 害虫駆除業者: gaichuu kujo gyousha - "merchant who exterminates harmful insects". But there are some variations, and I think it can be shortened to 害虫駆除 (gaichuu kujo).

[soulreaper_shinigami]

tnx

[Miss Elizabeth]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but is there diffrent kinds of the Japanese language spoken....Like a diffrence between North Japanese and South japanese and etc.?

[Dreams]

It's not a stupid question...

There are different dialects in Japan. Students generally learn "standard dialect", which is what you'll find in any textbook, and is generally widespread in Japan. Other dialects change word endings, or may have different common words (like for 'hello' and 'thank you' and so on). But I don't think the differences are so great that you'd be completely lost if you only knew standard... if Geisha Boy ever pops back in, he probably knows better than I do on this subject.

The Wiki has a rather long page listing off the dialects and some of their differences. (Link) Too bad there's no map, but I'm sure there's one on Google somewhere.

[Miss Elizabeth]

awesome!!
どうも ありがとう

[Tomasu]

How do you say... "Thank you for being my friend, I appreciate it greatly Kurisu-kun"? and how do you say "Get away from me! I do not want to even see you around me!"

[Dreams]

Kurisu-kun, thank you for being my friend. I appreciate it greatly.
Kurisu-kun, watashi no tomodachi da shite kurete arigatou. Kansha shimasu.
クリスくん、私の友達だしてくれてありがとう。感謝します。

Get away from me! I don't want to even see you around me!
Acchiike! Soba ni ite hoshikunai yo!
あっち行け！そばにいてほしくないよ！

[geishaboy]

It's not a stupid question...

There are different dialects in Japan. Students generally learn "standard dialect", which is what you'll find in any textbook, and is generally widespread in Japan. Other dialects change word endings, or may have different common words (like for 'hello' and 'thank you' and so on). But I don't think the differences are so great that you'd be completely lost if you only knew standard... if Geisha Boy ever pops back in, he probably knows better than I do on this subject.

Sorry, sorry everyone actually, you wouldn't believe how busy I have been with university lately, it's insane.

Anyway, foreign students normally learn standard Japanese, which is spoken in Tokyo, and also on the news, TV and radio.

Depending where you go in Japan the dialect will change, probably the most dominant dialect outside of Toyko ben (ben = dialect) would probably be Kansai ben, which is spoken around the Oosaka area, there are a lot of sound changes, and a few verb and word changes. For example, the negative form of a verb changes from ~nai to ~hen. So 'tabenai' (not eat) becomes 'tabehen'. Most of the rest of Japan agrees that Kansai ben sounds pretty annoying.

Further south you get to Hiroshima (where I stayed for a couple of weeks) and the langauge gets kinda... blunt. Hiroshima ben sounds quite rigid and hard

Even further south you get what some Japanese people refer to as 'hicks ville" and the dialect spoken out there sounds a bit 'hill billy' or so I'm told

right down south in Okinawa they speak almost another language, I forget what it's called, but I think it actually IS considered to be a language of it's own, even though everyone down there speaks standard Japanese as well

North of Tokyo, you have Touhoku ben, which have been told is almost impossible to understand for your average Japanese person due to it's structure

And even further north you have Hokkaido ben, which I don't know much about, but apparently isn't as bad a Touhoku ben

I'll try to pop in more often I swear, I wish there were more hours in the day

[Tomasu]

Kurisu-kun, thank you for being my friend. I appreciate it greatly.
Kurisu-kun, watashi no tomodachi da shite kurete arigatou. Kansha shimasu.
クリスくん、私の友達だしてくれてありがとう。感謝します。

Get away from me! I don't want to even see you around me!
Acchiike! Soba ni ite hoshikunai yo!
あっち行け！そばにいてほしくないよ！

Domo ^^ Could you provide me with a pronunciation guide?

[Dreams]

I'll try to pop in more often I swear, I wish there were more hours in the day :(

I'll trade places with you. I have all the time in the world now that I'm stuck at home without a car and futilely looking for an animation job in a city where there are virtually no animation jobs.

Domo ^^ Could you provide me with a pronunciation guide?

General pronunciation guide

I can go through the sentences phonetically if you really want. It's just time-consuming and annoying and I always wonder if I'm doing it right.

[Tomasu]

I think i got it ^^ i tried doing it during school(cause..well..i was bored...)

Kurisu-kun, watashi no tomodachi da shite kurete arigatou. Kansha shimasu.
(Ku-Ree-soo- K-oo-n, wa-ta-she no to-mo-dah-che dah she-teh koo-reh-teh ahh-ree-gah-toe. Kan-shah she-mas-oo)
yeah..that should be right ^^

[Miss Elizabeth]

North of Tokyo, you have Touhoku ben, which have been told is almost impossible to understand for your average Japanese person due to it's structure

And even further north you have Hokkaido ben, which I don't know much about, but apparently isn't as bad a Touhoku ben

oh yeah I have heard of that in class thank you for both of your answers

[geishaboy]

I'll try to pop in more often I swear, I wish there were more hours in the day

I'll trade places with you. I have all the time in the world now that I'm stuck at home without a car and futilely looking for an animation job in a city where there are virtually no animation jobs.

Hey, if you want to take over as moderator, I'll have a talk with the webmaster and the others and see what they say, besides your Japanese being a bit better than mine, you are floating around here more than I am.

I was actually going to ask you if you wanted to take over, but I haven't found the time to ask you (hell, I'm supposed to be working on a translation assignment as I write this)